Astronomy Image Explorer Puts Scientific Graphics At Your Fingertips

January 7, 2014

IOP Publishing (IOP) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) are pleased to announce the launch of the Astronomy Image Explorer (AIE). The AIE provides researchers with quick and easy access to hundreds of thousands of images, illustrations, graphs, charts, and videos that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The AIE has tools designed to aid researchers in their discovery and use of all types of graphic resources and is available free online to scientists and the public alike.

“The new Astronomy Image Explorer is just the latest example of the leadership shown by the AAS and its publishing partners in keeping the astronomical literature at the forefront of electronic publishing,” says AAS President David Helfand (Quest University Canada).

The AIE has been designed as a convenient and efficient tool for researchers to find graphics that have appeared in the Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomical Journal, which IOP publishes for the AAS. “It has been exciting to work with IOP on the creation of the Astronomy Image Explorer,” says Chris Biemesderfer, AAS Director of Publishing. “We’re pleased to offer a new service for the community that can enhance researchers’ explorations in the literature.”

Users can easily search using any combination of author, journal, citation, format, and keywords. Convenient tools are available to generate PowerPoint slides, download high-resolution images, obtain permissions and reuse information, or view the image in the context of the originally published research.

New images are added daily as journal content is published. Resources made available through the AIE are for academic use by the research community. Copyright information is embedded in each file downloaded from the site, along with the journal reference to facilitate proper citation.

“The AAS journals have always been leaders in both the research they publish and the tools and technologies they use,” says Anne Cowley, AAS Publications Board Chair. “The Astronomy Image Explorer is another exciting example of our journals setting the bar higher for the astronomical literature.”